Hard Time on Planet Earth

Jesse has a dream in which he's told his vice commander ordered the assassination of the Council's Grand Elder. So he wants to send this message home. He reads a book that was written by a professor at a nearby university, goes there, and gets involved in a project to transmit messages to other worlds. He designs a microchip that will enable faster-than-light communications, but the professor steals it, and ultimately Jesse is forced to destroy the chip, because humanity isn't prepared for extra-terrestrial contact.